Thursday, 18th


May 2017


info@eastcorkjournal.ie


EAST CORK AGRICULTURE info@eastcorkjournal.ie


Lamb Trade Remains Steady – IFA


IFA Sheep Committee


Chairman John Lynskey said the lamb trade is remaining steady, with factories paying €6.00 to tops of €6.15/kg for spring lamb. He said factories have the


made changeover


and supplies remain tight, leaving agents anx- ious for lambs. In addi- tion, he said factories will be eager to source ade- quate supplies for Rama- dan, which starts on May 27th


.


gets are making €5.10 with more


John Lynskey said hog- for quality


larger lots. He said ewes are making €2.70/kg. John Lynskey said the


weekly kill for week end- ing May 7th


was 46,000


head, of which 14,371 were spring lambs. He said to date this year the kill is up 104,783 head reflecting a big increase in hoggets and cull ewes. He added that


this is a


13% increase on 2016 levels.


21


Deadline Monday at noon


ICSA Attacks Tesco Spring Lamb Promotion As Unsustainable For Farmers


ICSA sheep chair-


man John Brooks has attacked Tesco for un- dermining premium spring lamb producers by offloading spring lamb at unsustainably low prices in shops. “Tesco is current-


ly selling leg of spring lamb at a ridiculously low price of €8.69/kg. This can only be de- scribed as below cost selling. This will have the effect


of putting


farmers out of business. ICSA is calling for this practice to stop imme- diately. Farmers need at least €7/kg for high cost early spring lamb systems and allowing for processing costs, it is clear that a retail price


of €8.69/kg is


unsustainable. Mean- while, retailers seem to have no problem get- ting €33/kg for farmed salmon.” “Spring lamb has to


Campaign To Turn Rural Ireland Pink For the third year run-


ning, the ‘Wrap It Pink’ campaign is gearing up to transform the land- scape of rural Ireland. ‘Wrap It Pink’ raises


funds for the Irish Can- cer Society’s free servic- es to help people facing breast cancer, including the freephone


Nurseline (1800 200 700); 13 hospital-based Daffodil Centres; the Society’s Night Nursing service, which cares for cancer patients at end of life; and its Volunteer Driver


Service, which


transports patients to their chemotherapy ap- pointments. It also helps to fund vital breast can- cer research. Farmers across Ire- land, together with Dairygold, have close


to €30,000 from


the campaign to date, with pink silage bales in fields serving as a constant


reminder to


women of all ages to get checked. Pink wrap sold out in a matter of weeks last year at Co-


@eastcorkjournal / #eastcorkjournal eastcorkjournal


Op Superstores branch- es throughout Munster and online. Speaking about


see the Cancer


campaign, John O’Car- roll, head of retail at Dairygold Co-Op Su- perstores, said: “We’re looking forward to an- other successful year of ‘Wrap It Pink’. We’re very grateful to farmers nationwide who have supported the campaign and we’re delighted to


other Irish co-ops


and agri sector business- es embrace pink to help in the fight against can- cer.”


Mark Mellett, head of fundraising at


Irish Cancer Society, added: “We are delight- ed to have the ongoing support of ‘Wrap it


the


Dairygold’s Pink’ cam-


paign, which raises vital funds to support people with breast cancer and


increases awareness of breast cancer, particular- ly in rural Ireland. The campaign is a fantastic show of support from the farming communi- ty for the 2,800 women who are diagnosed with breast cancer in Ireland each year and allows us to continue to invest in vital breast cancer re- search and support ser- vices for patients and their families.”


be marketed as a premi- um product. This puts it way below the cost of most steak cuts and much closer to mince price.” Tesco needs to un- derstand that


early


lamb production is a complex and high cost system. “Spring lamb producers excelled as usual. They carefully planned lambing dates /sale dates, cared for their flock pre and post


lambing at a time of year when you have long winter nights and feed costs are at a maxi- mum in order to have a premium product ready for


Easter and early


summer.” “It’s now the time of


year when early spring lamb producers are calculating their losses from their enterprise. After all this work the industry cheats us by paying a bad price and


introducing spurious weight limits.” “Early spring lamb


producers need a min- imum of €7/kg and a realistic weight limit of 22kgs in order to leave farmers with a small profit margin.” This year the indus-


try colluded to ensure the price barely exceed- ed €6/kg and the meat industry imposed a spu- rious weight limit as low as 20kgs.


Increased 2016 Profits In Dairy Processing-Marketing Show That “Only Farmers’ Margins are Wiped Out in Price Downturn


The Charperson of raised


ICMSA’s Dairy Commit- tee, Mr. Gerald Quain, said that while there was no denying the underlying commercial performance indicated by the increase in Ornua’s turnover and profits, the dairy farmers - who were the basis of the whole sector – would carefully note that in com- mon with other some milk processors Ornua’s mar- gins increased throughout the 2015/2016 price col- lapse that had wiped out the farmers’ margins and milk income.


while


Mr Quain said that farmers always


knew that the other links in the supply chain guard- ed their own margins and simply pushed any losses backwards onto the farm-


ers, it is noteworthy to see the figures as presented in the Ornua results where the company recorded an EBITDA jump of 18% and operating profits up 46% in a year when dairy farmers only broke the 28 cents per litre costs of production in the fourth quarter having received a price well below the costs of production for over a year at


that stage. The


ICMSA Dairy Commit- tee Chairperson said that while


farmers accepted


the need for profitabili- ty in the processing and marketing sectors, in- creasing profits in a year when farmers’ margins were slashed highlighted the


divergence between


the what he called the ‘Hard Pressed Foundation


level’ of the Irish dairy sector and the “Processor – Marketeer Level” and it was important forward that


ethos is maintained and that


the pain is shared


during periods of market downturn. “Increasing profits in


a year when farmers’ in- comes were at rock bot- tom only confirms what we already knew: every link


in the supply-chain


might benefit when prices are rising but only farm- ers’ margins are


wiped


out in a price downturn. This runs counter to the Co-op ethos and we need to see greater support for farmers during periods of market downturn going forward”, concluded Mr Quain.


Tel: 021 463 8000 • Email: info@eastcorkjournal.ie • Web: www.eastcorkjournal.ie going that Co-op


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